Video 7:22
Transmatilda

Sixty years ago two men took on the challenge of riding motorcycles around Australia as a reliability trial, called Transmatilda and now that epic journey is being re-enacted.

Transcript

PIP COURTNEY, REPORTER: The Australian Outback has often been used to test machinery to its upper limits. 60 years ago, two men took on the challenge of riding motorcycles around the continent as a reliability trial called Transmatilda. It was a time when only 10 per cent of Australia's country roads were sealed. And now that epic journey is being re-enacted. Mike Sexton reports.

MIKE SEXTON, REPORTER: It began with the Menzies Government's post-War industrial policy which encouraged businesses to decentralise. One that did was Renold Chains, which opened a factory in the Victorian town of Benalla. Among those employed was Vernon Train.

VERNON TRAIN: One of the managers come up with the idea about riding around Australia on a motorbike on the one chain.

MIKE SEXTON: In an era when reliability was a big selling point, proving that cars and bikes could hold their own in testing Australian conditions, Vernon Train volunteered to ride 11,000 miles around Australia to test the endurance of the company's motorcycle chains. To make the trial more credible, the company hired Mike Lockyer as an independent observer.

MIKE LOCKYER: It's akin to flying. On a bike, it's like an aircraft, where you have to put a bit of rudder on, bank it over a bit and hold it at the angle, and it's just like that on a motorbike.

MIKE SEXTON: Mike Lockyer has been entranced by motorcycles ever since he was five years old and his father took him for a spin.

MIKE LOCKYER: I used to love having a ride sitting on the tank. And I suppose that started me off.

MIKE SEXTON: Motorcycles represented freedom and excitement, but mostly they were about adventure. And one in particular 60 years ago that he could never have imagined, but which changed the course of his life.

VERNON TRAIN: We came to Benalla and the official sendoff from the works there at midday on 1st September and we headed off, the first stop to Gundagai and away we went.

MIKE SEXTON: So the pair who barely knew each other tracked an anti-clockwise loop around the continent in what became known as Operation Transmatilda. At a time when they estimate only 10 per cent of Australia's roads were sealed, they rode a BSA and a Triumph along gravel and dirt tracks, across salt pans and through creek beds and sand hills, often pushing the machines and themselves to the limit.

MIKE LOCKYER: And the bike went right up over the top of me, like, bang!, scraped up. I thought, "There's the trip gone bung." And all I got was a slight graze, a little bit of blood trickled down my nose. And that was all. Nothing else.

MIKE SEXTON: For fuel, they mostly relied on the good will of station owners, and despite every bone-rattling mile they rode, the chains stood the test.

VERNON TRAIN: We had our own little metho primus and used to wash it with petrol of course and then heat up some graphite grease, soak it in a little tray and feed it back on again. We done that about every 1,000 mile.

MIKE SEXTON: The company was overjoyed when the pair returned, throwing a celebration banquet at the Menzies Hotel in Melbourne and a more modest affair back in Benalla.

VERNON TRAIN: The experience was all over in one night and I had to go back to work on the Monday.

MIKE SEXTON: While Vernon Train returned to the factory, Mike Lockyer couldn't get part of the journey out of his mind. When the pair had ridden through Adelaide, Vernon Train suggested they spend the night at his parents' house south of the city. Mike Lockyer slept in what he thought was the spare bedroom.

MIKE LOCKYER: And in the morning, I woke up and I heard a female voice saying, "Who's that in my bed?"

MIKE SEXTON: The voice belonged to Vernon Train's sister, Kathleen, who'd come home from a night shift at the local hospital. And after their slightly awkward introduction, they've been together ever since.

The story of their first meeting is included in a diary Mike Lockyer kept during Operation Transmatilda, a memoir that's been dusted off by Kathleen.

KATHLEEN LOCKYER: I was thinking about these diaries and thinking about Mali, our granddaughter, and thought that perhaps in 30 years' time she might be interested knowing what happened to her grandfather. So - and I thought well if we don't hurry up and get it written down, it might be too late.

MIKE SEXTON: But the book has found an audience in the broader family of vintage motorcycle enthusiasts. And 60 years after their epic journey, Vernon Train and Mike Lockyer are finding renewed interest in Operation Transmatilda.

DANNY CURRAN: I sent a copy of it over to a mate of mine who's working over in the mines in WA, and when he looked at it and read the story, he said, "We need to do this. This is something that we need to do otherwise we'll never do anything in our life."

MIKE SEXTON: So Danny Curran is following in the tracks of his cousin Vernon Train by re-enacting Operation Transmatilda.

DANNY CURRAN: It won't be at high speed. We'll be about 80 k's an hour all the way round. And we can't push too many k's too many hours during the day, because it'll probably be too hard on us and the bikes.

MIKE LOCKYER: I'm a bit scornful. I said to Danny, "Oh, look, it's too easy." What makes it even more of a sissy thing is, they've got a back-up vehicle, if anything goes wrong or they need any spares.

MIKE SEXTON: Beneath the mock indignation, both men are thrilled their journey has been revived. Vernon Train still wears the gold watch the company gave him in recognition of his feat. He worked on and off at the factory in Benalla until the company closed its doors in the 1970s. What has endured are memories of a daring adventure by two men who began it as strangers and ended it as family.

MIKE LOCKYER: This whole thing changed my life completely. For the better, I think, too.